Berks House Still Unsafe Despite Radon-proofing Job

November 14, 1985|The Morning Call

Unsafe levels of radon contamination have re-appeared in a room of a Berks County home where a utility has spent more than $32,000 to have the home radon-proofed.

A rear room on the first floor of the Colebrookdale Township home of Stanley J. Watras has shown readings from 0.30 to 2.0 during tests over the last 10 days, according to Rick Ryan, a health physicist for Arix Corp. of Grand Junction, Colo., the company hired by Philadelphia Electric Co. to radon-proof the home.

Federal environmental officials say a 0.02 working level is the threshold for exposure to radon gas, which can link with dust particles and lodge in the lungs and lead to lung cancer.

The Watras family was forced to move from the home last January, when radon contamination in the home was found to be 13.5 working levels.

It was after that that PE embarked on the project to have the home radon- proofed. The Watras, amid much fanfare generated by PE and the state Department of Environmental Resources, were allowed to return to their home in July.

The problem of radon contamination in the home first came to light last December, when Stanley Watras, a Bechtel Corp. engineer working for PE at the Limerick nuclear power plant, touched off alarms at the plant when he reported to work.

Ryan said yesterday that his company will install an electric fan in one of the vents in the home to try to clear the room of the contamination.

Ryan said recent readings in the Watras house ranged from 0.02 to 0.10 working levels in various rooms.

Ron Harper, a PE spokesman, said yesterday, "We said in the beginning this is a demonstration project, and we are learning more all the time. We are quite pleased with what we have seen and feel that the average readings for the year will show it has reached a controllable point."

"This is no easy fix," he added.

He confirmed that PE is still paying for the monitoring and radon-proofing work at the Watras house at 199 Indian Lane.

Arix ripped up the concrete floor, created a new drainage system at the foundation, laid new slabs, sealed the floor and installed vent fans, which are driven by air to draw radon out of the home.

The Watras home sits atop a band of uranium deposits in the granite formation known as the Reading Prong, which stretches from southeastern Pennsylvania into New Jersey and New York.

Radon, a colorless and odorless gas, is produced by the natural decay of radium, an element found in uranium deposits.

Other homes in the Colebrookdale Township area have been found to have higher-than-normal levels of radon.